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The history of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the Peruvian Amazon has been one of resistance.
They have avoided the invasion of the rubber economy, escaped from the expeditions that wanted to kidnap them to turn them into servants and, more recently, between the 80s and 90s, they have been pressured by gangs of illegal loggers who enter their territories to extract their resources.
They have even taken on oil and gas projects.
All these reasons led Peru to create the Kugapakori, Nahua, Nanti and others Territorial Reserve (RTKNN) in 1990, an area of 443,887 hectares, located between the departments of Cusco and Ucayali, which sought to shield and protect these people from dangers. that they brought in external actors.
However, according to complaints raised by indigenous organizations in the region, the possible construction of a road adjacent to this area could not only expose them, but also increase deforestation in the area.
Julio Cusurichi Palacios, a member of the Board of Directors of Aidesep, a Peruvian indigenous organization that represents 64 Amazonian towns, says that, although the proposal to build this road was made by the district municipality of Megantoni in 2019, it was only until a few months ago that the local indigenous people heard about the project.
What they are looking to do – he comments – is to build a road 44,840 kilometers long and four meters wide to connect Vista Alegre Mishahua with Alto Mishahua.
But with this road, the indigenous people insist, there would be several risks that would arise.
Ashaninka indigenous people, armed with rifles, bows and arrows, force a logging truck to turn around, in April 2023.Franklin Briceno (AP)
What they fear most is that the last stretch of the proposed road is less than 200 meters from the RTKNN, which “could facilitate access to illicit activities in the area and, as a consequence, increase the risk of contact with voluntarily isolated groups.” and in initial contact,” they say.
Even in two open letters they wrote to the authorities, signed by Aidesep, the Regional Coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples of Aidesep-Atalaya (Corpiaa), and the Machiguenga Council of the Urubamba River (Comaru), they make the same argument: “far from bring development to the area, the construction of this highway will only bring more massive invasions to the reserve, more illegal logging activities, large-scale deforestation, drug trafficking and more serious threats to the brothers who live in the reserve.”
A road through a section damaged by illegal mining in Madre de Dios (Peru), in 2018.Rodrigo Abd (AP)
And deforestation is another of the issues that worries them the most.
From 2021 to 2023, 2,318 hectares of deforested forest have been recorded around the five kilometers of influence of the proposed route.
The arrival of a highway could worsen the situation.
“It would seem that all this is part of a strategy that seeks to take over the Amazon,” adds Cusurichi, who also remembers that there is a clandestine runway just six kilometers away from the last stretch of the proposed highway.
Furthermore, it reiterates, before submitting the project request to the National Environmental Certification Service for Sustainable Investments (Senace), the entity that must give the environmental license and approval so that the road can actually be built, the District Municipality of Megantoni never consulted the indigenous communities about what he had in mind.
América Futura attempted to contact both the District Municipality of Megantoni and Senace but did not receive a response from either entity.
However, through the information that has reached Aidesep, it is known that Senace classified the road as category II, meaning that it needs a semi-detailed environmental impact study and not a detailed one, as they expected to happen from the indigenous organization. since it is more complete and rigorous.
“The municipality tells us that the objective of creating this road is to unite the communities of Alto Mishahua with their agricultural production areas, but this has important consequences.
Not only can deforestation lead to much more warming of the planet, but indigenous peoples could disappear,” adds Cusurichi.
In fact, in a first document that the General Directorate of Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Ministry of Culture of Peru sent to Senace, in response to a technical request that the latter requested, they also make it clear that the path, which according to their calculations it would be 160 meters from the Reserve, it could be risky for isolated communities.
They point out that, although the area where the project will be executed does not overlap the RTKNN, “its areas of direct and indirect environmental influence would overlap the reserve.”
They then suggest modifying “the final stretch of the local road.”
A deforested area in Puerto Moldonado (Peru), after the construction of a section of the interoceanic highway, in 2007. Brent Stirton (Getty Images)
In a second document, in which they respond to the modification made by the municipality and in which apparently the area of influence of the road no longer overlaps with the reserve, the Ministry of Culture clarifies again that the municipality did not do so with support technical, “that is, the methodology used has not been presented.”
Although the project, for now, is not a certainty, the communities continue to raise the alarm.
On March 20, during a convention that was held in the provincial municipality of La Convencion – and as reported by the local media Info Megantoni – Jessica Mahuantiari Piñarreal, secretary of Women and Youth of Comaru, said that the roads have brought Now they are foreign people, settlers, and with this, their culture is disappearing.
Within the communities there is not much faith that the proposed road in Megantoni is the exception to this rule.